The present invention is directed to a remittance processor for processing transaction documents, in the form of punched cards or OCR documents and remittance documents in the form of checks. In particular, the invention is directed to electronically reading a batch of transaction documents and encoding and endorsing an associated batch of remittance documents in a single operation.
Prior to the invention, most high-volume remittance processing operations involved receiving incoming remittance mail, including remittance documents (checks) and transaction documents or stubs (indicating amounts due), opening the mail, extracting the contents and sorting the contents into batches. The sorting operation usually involved a comparison between the dollar amounts written on the checks and a dollar written on the stub. If the check amount was written for the same amount as the stub, these payments were sorted into a "Full-Payment" batch. If the check and stub amounts did not agree, such payments were sorted into a batch of "Partial Payments". In addition, other types of payments were also sorted into specific batch classifications. Among these classifications are:
(1) Multiple document transactions (several stubs but one check); PA1 (2) Multiple check transactions (one stub, but several checks); PA1 (3) Multiple document, Multiple checks (several stubs and several checks); PA1 (4) No-document (checks with no stub); and PA1 (5) No-check (stubs with no check).
Of all these payment classifications, only the "Full Payment" batches required no special processing. A "Full-Payment" batch usually consisted of approximately 250 transactions, each transaction consisting of one check and one stub. To process these transactions, most methods involved separating a "Full-Payment" batch into two stacks of documents, one stack of checks and one stack of stubs. The stubs were usually taken to some type of reader-accumulator-printer apparatus which would read a stub, print the information read, and accumulate a dollar total of the dollar amount information read from each stub. After reading an entire batch of stubs, this apparatus would print out the accumulated dollar total for the batch.
Concurrent with the processing of stubs would be the encoding of associated checks. This operation is usually performed on a proof machine common in the banking industry. The encoder operator would grasp each check in the batch, index the dollar amount of the check into the proof machine keyboard, and then drop the check into the proof machine's document transport mechanism. The proof machine then encoded the indexed amount upon the check and endorsed the back side of the check with audit-trail information. The proof machine also accumulated a sum of the dollar amounts of each check and printed this sum at the completion of the encoding operation.
After a "Full-Payment" batch had been processed through the stub reader and its checks encoded, one final step remained to complete the process. The total dollar amount of the stubs (obtained by passing them through the reader-accumulator-printer) was compared with the total dollar amount of the checks (obtained from the proof machines). If the stub total and the check total agreed, the process was complete. If, however, the stub total and the check total did not agree, for example, as the result of a mis-sorted item or a keying error, then the entire batch required reprocessing by hand in order to identify and correct the error. This process was very time-consuming and therefore quite costly.
As an alternative, more recent processes provide apparatus which would allow complete processing of a payment at a single station. In such processes, the remittance mail is delivered un-opened to one or more stations. An operator opens the unsorted mail remittance, inserts the remittance stub into the station, and then indexes the dollar amount of the check onto the station's keyboard. The station reads the stub and compares the dollar amount read from the stub and compares the with the dollar amount indexed by the operator. If the two amounts agree, the station allows the check to be encoded with the indexed dollar amount, completing the transaction. If the two amounts do not agree, the station accepts commands regarding the disposition of the out-of-balance payment.
In comparison with the previously described batch process, the advantage of this single-station process is that each transaction, that is, each stub-check combination, is balanced one transaction at a time. Such a process elminates the need for final batch balancing step, as in a batch process and the time consuming, costly manual processing required if a batch is out-of-balance. The single-step process, however, has the severe disadvantage of relatively slow processing rates. An additional disadvantage of the single-step process is the labor-intensive operation required of an operator. The operator of a single-step station must manually open the remittance mail envelope, extract its contents, decide upon its disposition, insert the stub into the station, index the check amount into a keyboard, and wait for a response from the station regarding the possibility of still further processing required. Furthermore, the processing of special payments such as multiple documents and multiple checks requires additional operator intervention.
An advantage of the present invention is that the transaction documents or stubs are pre-batched allowing the process to employ automatic mail opening equipment.
An additional advantage of the invention is that an operator can utilize an automatic, mechanical-feed reader to greatly increase the processing of transactions.
Another advantage of the invention is that a plurality of interface circuits are of modular design and can be conveniently reconfigured or replaced without interferring with the operation of the encoder.
A futher advantage of the invention is that the encoder can be operated in conjunction with the remittance processor, or as a stand alone unit.
A still further advantage of the present invention is that the remittance checks can be encoded and endorsed in either of two modes: in response to information provided by an operator utilizing a keyboard or in response to information obtained automatically by the remittance processor.
Other advantages appear hereinafter.